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Street Nomenclature 

of Washington City. 



ADDRESS BY 

Alexander B. Hagner 

BEFORE 

The Columbian Historical Society 


DELIVERED MAY 3, 1897. 






























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Street Nomenclature 

of Washington City. 


ADDRESS BY 

Alexander B. Hagner 

BEFORE 

The Columbian Historical Society 

DELIVERED MAY 3, 1897. 


WASHINGTON, D. C.: 

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR BY THE LAW REPORTER COMPANY. 

1897. 














ADDRESS. 


Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I am to occupy some portion of your time this evening 
with a business talk on a very matter-of-fact topic. I pro¬ 
pose to say something with reference to the selection of appro¬ 
priate names for the principal streets within the original 
boundaries of our city, as laid out under the direction of 
its great founder. 

There can be no greater boon to a city than spacious and 
convenient streets and avenues. They stand for its arteries 
and veins as public parks do for its lungs. But their value 
is incomplete unless there exists an orderly and methodical 
system of suitable names, so arranged as to enable the resi¬ 
dent and the stranger within its gates to ascertain for 
themselves and without needless trouble or delay the 
relative positions of the different highways through which 
they may be called to pass on business or pleasure. And in 
applying such a system to the Capital of the foremost nation 
of the world, it is eminently proper that its streets should be 
dignified by the names of the builders of the nation and the 
city, and thus present a continual reminder to old and 
young of the history of the country in which we live. 

It seems to have been only within this and the latter part 
of the last century that the importance of regular or wide 
streets was recognized by the builders of cities. True, 
Herodotus informs us that from each of the many small 
gates in the outer walls of Babylon, straight streets, the 
width of which is not stated, ran to the opposite gates. But 
Herodotus also says the walls of the city were more than 
three hundred and seventy feet high and ninety feet thick. 

Warned by the redundant imagination of our friend Father 

(i) 


2 


STREET NOMENCLATURE 


Hennepin, who described the Falls of Niagara which he 
actually saw with his own eyes only two centuries ago as six 
hundred feet high (only three times the true measure), we 
may well hesitate to adopt all the statements of Herodotus, 
without at all meaning to intimate that the father of history 
was also near of kin to another gentleman familiarly called 
the father of—something else. Such exaggerations belong to 
the ages of travelers’ tales. 

“ Of antres vast and deserts wild, . . . 

The anthropophagi and men whose heads 
Do grow beneath their shoulders.” 

In cities of which we know anything from reliable ac¬ 
counts, an inexplicable economy in the breadth and direct¬ 
ness of the streets seems to have been the rule. In Rome, 
at as recent a period as the reign of Augustus, there were 
but two vise or streets wide enough for the comfortable pass¬ 
age of wagons and chariots ; the other thoroughfares, which 
were known as vici , were narrow and devious alleys, con¬ 
stantly blocked by city traffic; thus graphically described 
by Juvenal, as rendered by Gifford: 

“Hark, groaning on the unwieldy wagon speeds 
Its cumbrous freight tremendous ; o’er our heads 
Projecting elm or pine, that nods on high 
And threatens death to every passer by.”— Sat: 3,384. 

Sir Thomas Moore, in his Utopia, undertook to picture a 
community as far surpassing all existing nations in the 
beauty and comfort of its homes and cities as in the wisdom 
of its government. 

The material elegancies of the Utopian cities were held 
up to the reader as very great improvements upon the ex¬ 
isting conditions in any of the great capitals in the known 
world in the year 1515, when the book was written. We 
may comprehend, therefore, the existing insignificance and 


OF WASHINGTON CITY 


3 


discomforts of the streets in those great cities, by the boast¬ 
ful statement that in Amaurot, the grand metropolis of the 
perfected country, the streets although very convenient for 
all carriages and well sheltered from the winds were full 
twenty feet broad. 

The present plan of London after the suppression of nu¬ 
merous tortuous lanes, gives one some idea of its former 
labyrinth of alleys that bore the names of streets. Boston 
and New York went through the same street evolution; 
and the twistings of Milk and Franklin streets in the 
former city and of Maiden Lane and William street in the 
latter, survive as reminders of the network of insufficient 
by-ways that were absorbed by the change. 

Mean streets deserve and will generally receive mean 
names. Hogarth has immortalized Gin Lane and the Seven 
Dials; but they were quite as refined appellations as Cow 
Lane, Hog Alley, Paddy’s Alley and Black Horse Lane, 
which McMaster says were the accepted names of much-used 
thoroughfares in Boston at the Revolutionary period. 

Fortunately the city of Washington at its birth was free of 
such perplexing inheritance of disorder; and whatever dis¬ 
comforts and blemishes of this description exist here now, 
are the results of our own negligent administration of the 
trust confided to us. 

As all are aware, it was the hand of the incomparable 
Washington that directed the organization of the city. In 
its establishment he took a constant interest; and his last 
official act as President, on the 3d of March, 1797, was a com¬ 
munication to the Commissioners on several important mat¬ 
ters connected with the public buildings and streets. Up 
to as late a period as 1791 he had suppressed his own name 
in speaking of what he had always called “The Federal 


4 


STREET NOMENCLATURE 


City;” though the people of the country had long before 
agreed upon a more appropriate appellation. In Septem¬ 
ber of that year, Messrs. Johnson, Stewart and Carroll, the 
first Commissioners of the new District, addressed the fol¬ 
lowing letter to Major L’Enfant, from Georgetown: 

“Sir—We have agreed that the Federal District shall be 
called ‘The Territory of Columbia/ and the Federal City, 
‘The City of Washington: * the title of the map will therefore 
be ‘A Map of the City of Washington in the Territory of 
Columbia.’ 

“We have also agreed that the streets shall be named 
alphabetically one way, and numerically the other: the 
former divided into North and South letters, the latter into 
East and West numbers, from the Capitol. Major Ellicott, 
with proper assistance, will immediately take and soon fur¬ 
nish you with soundings of the Eastern Branch, to be 
inserted in the map. We expect he will also furnish you 
with the direction of the proposed post-road which we wish 
to have noticed in the map.” 

In accordance with this order the streets were laid out: 
except that J street was omitted from the lettered streets, 
doubtless to prevent confusion from the resemblance of I 
and J when written. The extremest lettered street, both 
North and South, was named W. The farthest of the num¬ 
bered streets to the East was 31st; the farthest to the 
West, 26 th. 

Of the lettered streets, the majority are ninety feet wide 
and only three less than eighty feet; F street North and 
G street South have a width of one hundred feet, and K 
street North of one hundred and forty-seven feet. 

Of the numbered streets, sixteen range from one hundred 
feet to one hundred and twelve feet wide; and Sixteenth 
street North measures one hundred and sixty feet. North 
and South Capitol streets are each one hundred and thirty 


OF WASHINGTON CITY 


5 


feet wide; East Capitol street One hundred and sixty feet; 
and Four-and-a-half street one hundred and ten feet; Thir- 
teen-and-a-half street, seventy feet; Canal street thirty feet 
wide, and Water street sixty. Of the nineteen original 
avenues named after States, twelve are one hundred and 
sixty feet wide ; three one hundred and thirty, and four one 
hundred and twenty feet. There was not a street laid down 
on the plat, except a few of the most insignificant, which 
has not a greater width than Chestnut or Walnut street 
in Philadelphia, hitherto considered examples of elegance 
and comfort. The designers of Washington, warned by the 
blunder made in this respect in other cities, transferred to 
the bed of the streets the land which would have been prac¬ 
tically useless if left to give superfluous depth to the lots. 

So far as the nomenclature of the numbered streets is 
concerned, the system was excellent when adopted and can¬ 
not be improved now; but the applications of the alpha¬ 
betical system to the lettered streets although in the right 
direction soon developed inconveniences which have con¬ 
tinued to increase, and which should now be corrected 
without further delay. Blunders and absurdities long en¬ 
dured become so hardened by time that correction is often 
well nigh impossible; and so the gay equestrians will con¬ 
tinue to gallop along Rotten Row, and the busy crowds will 
throng Pall Mall, with only a hopeless laugh at the ab¬ 
surdity of the names, until Mrs. Barbauld’s “ingenuous 
youth” “from the Blue Mountain, or Ontario’s Lake”—(the 
precursor of Macauley’s New Zealander)—shall “press the 
sod,” “when London’s faded glories rise to view.” Fortu¬ 
nately, in Washington we are in full time to make the proper 
corrections without running counter to the inveterate habits 
of centuries. 

It is evident the proposed plan of naming the streets, so 

2H 


6 


STREET NOMENCLATURE 


far as the numbers are concerned, was adopted from the 
city of Philadelphia, which was then the seat of Govern¬ 
ment. From that city, also, were derived many of our 
existing building regulations for the new capital, first pro¬ 
mulgated by President Washington in October, 1791. It 
was then, by far, the most important city in the United 
States, excelling New York in population, wealth and re¬ 
finement, and the regularity of its plan was almost unique 
for that time. The streets running north and south were 
numbered as they remain to this day. To those running 
east and west, as far as the city had then been built, were 
given the names of forest trees; an arrangement supposed 
to be appropriate for the streets in the Capital of a State 
so exceptionally well wooded that the fact was proclaimed 
in the charter name, Pennsylvania. 

But a great part of the advantage of the numerical 
arrangement of streets running north and south is lost, 
where those running east and west have no alphabetical 
relation to each other. The citizen of Philadelphia to-day 
has no ready method of ascertaining the relative position 
of this class of streets, after the familiar jingle has spent 
itself: 

“ Market, Arch, Race and Vine, 

Chestnut, Walnut, Spruce and Pine.” 

Beyond these limits even the old resident must be guided 
only by his personal knowledge of the actual location of 
particular streets, acquired by experience and observation, 
while the stranger who stands most in need of information 
on the subject must rely only upon those of whom he may 
make inquiry. 

In Washington, by reason of the alphabetical relation of 
the lettered streets, one by moderate observation can frame 
an easy system of mnemonics by which he can readily 


OF WASHING TON CITY 


7 


locate with accuracy the position of any particular number 
on any numbered street. 

Commencing, for example, with the letter H on any 
numbered street north of the Capitol, the fact that 8 and H 
sound very much alike will enable one to remember that 
all numbers north of H street begin with 800. So the pres¬ 
ence of I in the word nine will suggest that all the numbers 
north of I street begin with 900, and of course all above K 
with 1000. The letter L sounds so much like eleven that 
one will be reminded that numbers above L begin with 
1100; and, reckoning thence, that all above M begin with 
1200; and above N with 1300. As fourteen is the first num¬ 
ber that contains the letter O, it is easy to remember that the 
numbers above O begin with 1400; and so on, without re¬ 
peating the others, until we reach the last letter, W, the sound 
of which suggests a double number, 2200, as the beginning 
of those above W. 

Under no circumstance should the efficient suggestion 
afforded by the alphabetical relation of the lettered streets 
be abandoned; all we propose is to improve it by abolish¬ 
ing certain obvious defects in the execution of the wise 
design. 

Much of what I shall say may have already occurred to 
those who have given any thought to the subject, and the 
particular suggestions I shall make by way of remedy were 
presented several years ago in a communication I addressed 
to The Evening Star. 

The similarity of sound of nearly one-third of the names 
of the lettered streets (being eight out of twenty-two), wdien 
spoken rapidly, causes constant and serious confusion and 
mistakes. B, C, D, E, G, P, T and V, to ordinary ears, 
may well be confounded, as they incessantly are. 

Any one who stands near a telephone when a message is 


8 


STREET NOMENCLATURE 


being transmitted to either of these streets will generally 
hear, first, the tiresome repetitions of the particular street 
letter required by the clerk of the sender; then follow the 
inevitable inquiries from the receiver as to whether the 
sender meant to call B street or C street, or some other of 
the eight whose names sound so much alike; and lastly, 
the colloquy of the clerks at the two ends of the line re¬ 
peating to each other several letters of the alphabet be¬ 
fore they have arrived at a satisfactory understanding on 
the point. And when one considers that the annoyance 
with which he has thus become sensible is but one of a 
number of similar delays that constantly happen at that 
particular instrument, and that such annoyances are hap¬ 
pening at every instrument, all over the city, he can begin 
to understand the extent of the general inconvenience. The 
like troubles result from the similarity of sound of the let¬ 
ters M and N; and of H and 8; L and Eleventh ; of A and 
K ; of U and W; and of I and Y. But to appreciate fully 
the bother, one must also observe what frequently occurs in 
any court in the city when the residence of a witness or 
party, or the locality of any act, is in question, and notice 
the constant difference between the opposing counsel, the 
court, and the members of the jury, as to what street had 
been really named by the witness: such misunderstandings 
almost forming the rule rather than the exception. Of 
course, from the same causes, repeated mistakes occur in 
the direction and delivery of letters, and in the daily 
talk of hundreds of people. When all these inconveni¬ 
ences are considered, it must certainly be admitted they 
rise to the importance of a very great nuisance that should 
be promptly abated. 

The application of the alphabet to these streets at the 


OF WASHINGTON CITY 


9 


time they were named, afforded a valuable suggestion to be 
improved upon in the future; but it could scarcely have 
been intended as a permanent arrangement. . Only one 
President had yet been chosen, and the range of selection 
was too limited to furnish an adequate supply of suitable 
names of prominent citizens. It may also have been con¬ 
sidered that the great actors in the struggle for Indepen¬ 
dence were then too familiar, and their rivalries too recent, 
to allow the entire disappearance of personal jealousies; 
and so the adoption of the colorless names of the letters of 
the alphabet might have been the wisest choice for the time 
being. 

How this arrangement was viewed at the time may be 
understood from the criticism of an English traveler upon 
this part of the system of names adopted for Washington. 
He writes: “There is not much taste, I think, displayed in 
the naming of the streets. Generals and statesmen might 
have lent their names, and helped in their graves to keep 
patriotism alive. A wag would infer that the north and 
south streets received their names from a pilot, and the east 
and west ones from an alphabetical teacher.” (Davis’ Tra¬ 
vels, p. 170.) 

But apart from this objection, the continued application 
to great thoroughfares, 100 to 160 feet in width and many 
miles in length, of such insignificant designations as B or C 
or P street, indicates a poverty of conception and of taste, 
a lack of dignity, and a want of appreciation of the import¬ 
ance of the city among the great capitals of the earth, that 
to-day would scarcely be expected in the staking off of a 
petty village boomed into short life by the moon-madness 
of speculation. 

An obvious and easy remedy is to substitute for the several 


10 


STREET NOMENCLATURE 


letters affixed to the streets the names of eminent Americans 
beginning with the corresponding letters, thus preserving 
all the benefits of an alphabetical arrangement while re¬ 
moving all the objections we have been considering. The 
troubles from the similarity of names would entirely cease, 
while the streets would be adorned by designations bearing 
perpetual testimony of the gratitude of the republic towards 
its great benefactors. 

In Boston this system has been applied to the fine streets 
crossing Commonwealth Avenue west of the Public Garden 
which have been named in order, Arlington, Berkley, Claren¬ 
don, Dartmouth, Exeter, &c. How paltry it would have been 
to call them after the letters of the alphabet alone! It would 
indeed have seemed the A, B, C of street nomenclature. 

I suggest for the consideration of the members of the 
Society, that there should be applied to the streets running 
east and west in the original city, in the first place, the names 
of the Presidents; then, of the Vice Presidents; then of the 
Chief Justices of the Supreme Court, and afterwards of the 
Speakers of the House of Representatives, and of the more 
distinguished members of the different Cabinets, and of 
celebrated military characters; as far as possible excluding 
the names of living persons; and when these sources of 
supply become exhausted, to admit the names of other dis¬ 
tinguished officials, including the earlier Mayors of the city ; 
in all cases adopting first from the list of officials of the 
same grade the names of those who were earliest in service, 
and applying the first choice to the streets in the most 
thickly settled portion of the city, north of the Capitol. 

There can be no more enduring and dignified form of 
recognition of a nation’s gratitude to its benefactors than to 
affix their names to portions of the country itself. Statues 


OF WASHINGTON CITY 


11 


rise and fall with those who made them, or are removed to 
new locations as the whim of the moment may suggest; but 
when a great name has once, by law or by long usage, been 
deliberately joined to a mountain, a county, or to a great 
street in an important city, that name will generally adhere 
as long as the land itself endures. It is, therefore, especially 
important that such names should be conferred by compe¬ 
tent authority and only after grave consideration; for the 
unworthy choice may survive as long as the deserving. 
“Ampersand” seems as firmly fastened to the mountain it 
belittles as “Washington” is to the sovereign peak of the 
White Hills of New Hampshire, or “Mitchell” to the mon¬ 
arch of the Black Mountains of North Carolina. And the 
same mortifying result will follow, where by inattention the 
authorities of a city have allowed carelessness or ignorance 
to impose an unworthy name upon an important street: and 
thus Milk Street and Maiden Lane will continue to annoy 
future generations because they have become too firmly fixed 
to admit of disturbance. What a mercy it is that Guiteau 
did not open a street through a lot in this city and bestow 
his name upon it, as apparently he might have done with 
impunity! For at one time it appears to have been con¬ 
sidered by the authorities quite as a matter of course that the 
city would confer what seemed to be an inexpensive compli¬ 
ment upon any land owner who would relinquish a strip 
of land through his property as the bed of a new alley or 
street. 

I propose also that the authorities shall abolish the incor¬ 
rect and undignified addition of the words “North” and 
“South” to different streets beginning with the same letter. 
The practice is incorrect, because no lettered street north 
from the Capitol has any more connection with any simi- 


12 


STREET NOMENCLATURE 


larly lettered street south from the Capitol than it has with 
any other lettered street. G street North is not a part of G 
street South,,nor does it touch or approach G street South 
through its whole course, any more than it approaches R 
street South. Practically the two G streets are as distinct 
from one another as W street North is from W street South, 
which are about five miles asunder. There is a reason why 
the portions of the numbered streets that lie respectively 
north and south from the Capitol should be designated ac¬ 
cordingly, for this discriminates between different portions 
of the same street; but A street South is no more a part of 
A street North than it is of V street North. 

This practice tends further to expose and emphasize the 
poverty of thought displayed in calling great streets after 
the letters of the alphabet, by thus needlessly duplicating 
this series of colorless names. 

The notion that this plan assists the stranger in finding 
his way is entirely incorrect, for G street South or G street 
North cannot be more easily found than Grant street or 
Garfield street. The proposed plan extends the benefit of 
the alphabetical arrangement much more effectually than 
the use of the bare letters themselves. 

The selection of appropriate names to fulfil the condi¬ 
tions of our plan was not as simple a matter as one might 
suppose. Our great men in the early days do not seem 
to have appropriated the letters of the alphabet for the 
purposes of initials with entire impartiality. While some 
of the letters, such as A, H, J, and M, have furnished 
more than enough initial letters for our purpose, such is 
not the case with other letters, as D, N, and O. There is 
but one name commencing with I in the roll of our Revo- 


OF WASHINGTON CITY 


13 


lutionary worthies. For this reason it is in some degree 
a necessity to substitute J in its place. This enables us to 
use three Presidential names which commence with that 
initial. 

I will now read the list of the changes which I propose 
should be accomplished by Act of Congress, saying a word 
or two, as I read the list, to identify the least familiar of 
the names here suggested: 


PRESENT AND PROPOSED NAMES OF LETTERED STREETS ORIGI¬ 
NALLY LAID DOWN ON THE PLAT OF THE CITY. 


Present Name. 

Proposed Name. 

Public Service. 

A Street North. 

Adams. 

President. 

B Street North. 

Buchanan. 

President. 

0 Street North. 

Cleveland. 

President. 

D Street North. 

Dallas. 

Vice-President. 

E Street North. 

Ellsworth. 

Chief Justice Sup. Court U. S. 

F Street North. 

Fillmore. 

President. 

G Street North. 

Grant. 

President. 

H Street North. 

Harrison. 

President. 

I Street North. 

Jefferson. 

President. 

K Street North. 

King. 

Vice-President. 

L Street North. 

Lincoln. 

President. 

M Street North. 

Madison. 

President. 

N Street North. 

Nelson. 

Signer Decl. of Independence, 
Gov. Va., and Gen. 

O Street North. 

Otis. 

(James) Patriot. 

P Street North. 

Polk. 

President. 

Q Street North. 

Quincy. 

(Josiah) Patriot. 

R Street North. 

Rutledge. 

Chief Justice. 

S Street North. 

Sherman. 

(Roger) signer Decl. of Ind., of 
the Articles of Confedera¬ 
tion and of the Constitution. 

T Street North. 

Tyler. 

President. 

U Street North. 

Upsher. 

Secretary State and Navy. 

V Street North. 

Van Buren. 

President. 

W Street North. 

Washington. 

President. 


14 


STREET NOMENCLATURE 


PRESENT AND PROPOSED NAMES-Continued. 


Present Name. 

Proposed Name. 

Public Service. 

A Street South. 

Arthur. 

President. 

B Street South. 

Bell. 

Speaker of H. of Rep., 1834. 

C Street South. 

Clinton. 

Vice-President, 1804. 

D Street South. 

Dearborn. 

Secretary of War, 1801. 

E Street South. 

Everett. 

Minister to England. Secre¬ 
tary of State. 

F Street South. 

Franklin. 

G Street South. 

Garfield. 

President. 

H Street South. 

Hayes. 

President. 

I Street South. 

Jackson. 

President. 

K Street South. 

Knox. 

Secretary of War, 1789. 

L Street South. 

La Fayette. 


M Street South. 

Monroe. 

President. 

N Street South. 

Nicholson. 

H. of Rep ; Early Commodores 
in Navy. 

O Street South. 

Osgood. 

P. M. General, 1789. 

P Street South. 

Pierce. 

President. 

Q Street South. 

Quitman. 

Maj. Gen. Mexican War. Gov¬ 
ernor of Mississippi. 

R Street South. 

Rush. 

Signer Decl. of Ind., Surg. Gen. 

S Street South. 

Story. 

Justice of Sup. Ct., 1811-1845. 

T Street South. 

Taylor. 

President. 

U Street South. 

Underwood. 

(Jos. R.) Judge. Senator. 

V Street South. 

Van Ness. 

Member of the House of Rep. 
Mayor. 

W Street South. 

Walcott. 

Secretary of Treas., 1795-1797. 


Signer of Decl. of Ind. and 
Articles of Confederation. 

Otis street will commemorate James Otis, the “ flame of 
fire,” as described by John Adams after his wonderful argu¬ 
ment against the writs of assistance. Nelson street preserves 
the memory of the heroic Governor of Virginia, who pointed 
out the finest house in Yorktown, which belonged to him¬ 
self, and urged the artillery to direct their fire upon it, as it 
would probably be occupied by Cornwallis. 

Josiah Quincy is worthy to be remembered as one of the 
most energetic and constant of the early patriots. 


OF WASHINGTON CITY 


15 


To Edward Everett the country is chiefly indebted for the 
success of the patriotic effort of Miss Pamela Cunningham of 
South Carolina, a suffering invalid, to purchase the home of 
Washington and preserve it for the Nation. 

Two gallant commodores in our earliest naval contests bore 
the name of Nicholson; from the beginning of the century 
the name has been represented in Congress ; and among the 
early proprietors were Nicholson and Greenleaf. 

The devotion of Generals Knox and Greene to the Father 
of his Country recalled in the army the affection of Craterus 
and Hephsestion for Alexander the Great, and his remark, 
“ Craterus loves the King, but Hephsestion loves Alex¬ 
ander ”; but both of our generals reverenced and loved 
Washington as well for his great achievements as Com¬ 
mander-in-chief as for his personal qualities of head and 
heart. 

This legislation would not be complete without a sup¬ 
plementary provision changing the names of sundry small 
streets not laid down on the original map, but to which 
have been applied, with very slender show of authority I 
am inclined to think, some of the great names which are 
included in the list I have read. 

A very serious embarrassment to visitors as well as to 
residents in a city, results from the duplication of names 
of the streets. In old cities this has become a great griev¬ 
ance. In London, according to Mogg’s map, eleven streets 
bear the name of Duke; twelve are called James; fifteen 
Charles; seventeen George; seventeen John; eighteen Glou¬ 
cester; eighteen Queen; nineteen Prince; twenty-one York; 
twenty-three King; twenty-three Church; and twenty-nine 
Park. The address of a letter to any such popular street 
is but a small part of the direction requisite for a sure 


16 


STREET NOMENCLATURE 


delivery, even with the excellent methods of the London 
postoffice. 

No one who has not examined the subject can realize what 
bad progress in this direction we have already made in 
Washington. I find that of the names of Presidents and 
others included in the foregoing list, (reckoning alleys, 
courts, places, roads and streets) Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson 
and Washington each appear three times; Lincoln, Pierce 
and Grant each five times; Madison seven times; and there 
are, to a lesser extent, many repetitions of other names. It 
is time this sort of mischief should be stopped, and this can 
only be accomplished by legislative enactment. 

As the present suggestions are intended only to secure 
appropriate names to the streets within the city as it was 
originally laid out, the only changes now proposed are in 
cases where the names now existing would conflict with 
those suggested in our list. The rectification of other cases 
of the kind may be left to the action of the Commissioners 
when they shall undertake to affix suitable names to the 
streets outside of the city proper, as they have been author¬ 
ized to do by an existing statute. 

In the performance of this most important duty, it is to 
be hoped the Commissioners will apply the alphabetical 
arrangement to the lettered streets. While there is nothing 
to prevent the extension of the present numbered streets to 
the extreme northern boundaries of the District, yet the lay 
of the land will only permit to a very limited extent, the 
extension of the present lettered streets to the land east and 
west outside of the city proper. It will therefore be neces¬ 
sary to lay off new lettered streets in the outside terri¬ 
tory. This will be best accomplished by arranging it 


OF WASHINGTON CITY 


17 


in sections; to one of which might be applied the names of the 
Capital cities of the Union, as was suggested by Mr. Justice 
Brown ; to another the names of our great rivers; to another 
the names of famous Indians, &c.: in each case preserving 
the alphabetical arrangement. 

To avoid a repetition of the names applied in our list to 
the lettered streets, I have, as far as possible, selected names, 
commencing with the same initials as the former names; 
and of persons connected with the early history of the 
country or city. 

The list submitted for your consideration contains the 
names of the— 

STREETS, PLACES, COURTS AND ALLEYS WITHIN THE CITY AND 
DISTRICT, WHICH HAVE BEEN CALLED AFTER SOME OF THE 
NAMES NOW PROPOSED TO BE APPROPRIATED TO THE STREETS 
WITHIN THE ORIGINAL CITY; WITH THE SUBSTITUTES PRO¬ 
POSED. 


Present Name. 

Proposed Name. Public Service. 

Adams Mill road fr. Co- 

Hancock. 

Signer Decn. of Ind. 

lumbia road. 

Adams st. Anacostia fr. 

Harrison. 

Ames. 

(Fisher) Patriot. 

Arthur st. Anacostia fr. 

Allen. 

(Ethan) Cont. Army. 

62 Grant. 

Arthur PI. nw. bet. B and 

Calvert. 

(Lord Baltimore.) 

C, N. J. ave. and 1st. 

Buchanan st. fr. Monroe. 

Barney. 

(Joshua) Commodore. 

Buchanan st. nw. west fr. 

Columbia road. 

Pendleton. 

(Edmund) President of 1st. 
Continental Congress. 

Cleveland ave. nw. fr. 1219 

W to 1224 Fla. ave. 

Cass. 

Secy. State and War. Gov¬ 
ernor General. 

Clinton st. nw. fr. 11th 
ext. Piney Branch road. 

Howard. 

(John Eager) Cont. Army. 
Gov. of Md. Senator. 

Clinton pi. nw. fr. 1120 
Conn. Ave. 

Chase 

(Samuel) Signer Declara¬ 
tion of Independence. 


18 


STREET NOMENCLATURE 


STREETS, PLACES, 

COURTS AND 

ALLEYS—Continued. 

Present Name. 

Proposed Name. Public Service. 

Decatur st. ne. fr. N. Cap. 

Bayard. 

Senator. Commissioner to 

bet. 0 and P. 


Ghent. 

Fillmore st. Anacostia fr. 

Forsyth. 

Secretary of State; Minis¬ 

Harrison. 


ter to Spain. Senator. 

Franklin st. nw. fr. 1st to 

Campbell. 

(William) Hero at King’s 

2d and fr. N. J. ave. to 


Mountain, 1780. 

5th above P. 

Garfield ave. sw. fr. Del. 

Galletin. 

Secretary of Treas., 1801. 

ave. to B. 

Garfield ave. Washington 

Jay. 

First Chief Justice. 

Heights. 

Grant st. Anacostia fr. 

Greene. 

(Nathaniel) General. 

334 Monroe. 

Grant ave. nw. fr. Bright- 

Hamlin. 

Vice-President. 

wood ave. to Fla. ave. 

and 10th. 

Grant pi. nw. fr. 720 9th 

Colfax. 

Vice-President. 

to 10th. 

Grant road fr. Tennally- 

Randolph. 

(Peyton) Prest. First Con¬ 

town to Broad Branch 


tinental Congress. 

road. 

Grant st. nw. fr. Pine to 

Decatur. 

Commodore. 

Brown road. 

Harrison ave. se. fr. 13th 

Hamilton. 

Secretary of Treas., 1789. 

to 14th above C. 



Harrison st. Anacostia fr. 

Hendricks. 

Vice-President. 

Monroe. 

Hayes court nw. fr. 18th 

Pickering. 

(Timothy) Secretary of 

above D. 


State, 1795. 

Jackson st. Anacostia fr. 

Irving. 

Minister to Spain. Biogra¬ 

Monroe. 


pher of Washington. 

Jackson st. ne. fr. 721 N. 

Tilghman 

(Colonel, Tench) aide to 

Cap. to 1st. 


Washington. 

Jefferson ave. nw. fr. 3025 

Smallwood. 

Governor of Maryland. 

Water to 3028 M. 


Major General. 

Jefferson pi. nw. fr. 1218 

Scott. 

Lieutenant General. 

Conn. ave. to 1227 19th. 

Jefferson st. Anacostia fr. 

Izard. 

(Ralph) Commr. to Tm- 

Monroe. 


cany. Senator, 1781. 


OF WASHINGTON CITY 


19 


STREETS, PLACES, COURTS AND ALLEYS-Continued. 


Present Name. Proposed Name. Public Service. 


King alley se. bet. 14th Kendall, 
and 15th st., S. Car.ave. 
and C. 

King ne. fr. Bladensburg Wirt, 
road. 

Knox alley sw. fr. 328 E Key. 
to 327 F. 

LaFayette ave. Montello Jenifer, 
fr. Queen. 

Lincoln ave. fr. Fla. ave. Marshall, 
and N. Cap. to Hare- 
wood and Bunker Hill 
roads. 

Lincoln sq. E. Cap. fr. 11th Lincoln, 
to 13th. 


(Amos) Post Master Gen¬ 
eral, 1833. 

(Wm.) Attorney General, 
1817-29. 

(Francis S.) Star Spanged 
Banner. 

(Daniel of St. Thomas) 
Signer of Constitution 
from Maryland. 

Chief Justice, 1801-55. 


Lincoln st. Anacostia fr. Southard. 
Johnson. 


Lincoln st. nw. fr Bright- Laurens, 
wood ave. 

Lincoln Terrace nw. hd. Mercer. 
15tli and Fla. ave. 

Madison st. nw. fr. 1522 Webster. 
14th to 1519 17th. 


Secretary of Navy. Sena¬ 
tor. Author of import¬ 
ant report explaining the 
financial situation of the 
Government with respect 
to the Dist. of Columbia. 

(Henry) Minister to Neth¬ 
erlands. Imprisoned in 
Tower. 

General. Killed at battle 
of Princeton. 

Secretary of State, etc. 


Madison ave. nw. fr. 518 
1st to 519 2d. 

Madison court nw. fr. 1216 
Madison. 

Madison st. Anacostia fr. 
Adams. 

Madison st. nw. fr. 6th to 
7th above M. 

Madison st. nw. fr. 621. 


Dexter. (Samuel) Secretary of War 

and State, 1800-1. 

Muhlenburg. (Fredk. A.) 1st Speaker, 
1789. 

Macon. Speaker, 1801-7. 

Pinckney. (William) Atty. Genl. Min¬ 

ister to England. 

Morgan. (General Daniel) Member 

of Congress. 


20 


STREET NOMENCLATURE 


STREETS, PLACES, 

COURTS AND 

ALLEYS—Con tin ued. 

Present Name. 

Proposed Name. Public Service. 

Monroe st. Anacostia fr. 

Morton. 

Vice-President. 

the bridge to Jefferson. 

Pierce pi. nw. fr. 141814th 

Johnson. 

President. 

to 1825 16th. 

Pierce st. Anacostia fr. 

Putnam. 

General. 

Harrison. 

Pierce st. nw. fr. 1140 N. 
Cap. to 1135 N. J. ave. 

McKean. 

Signer Declaration of In¬ 
dependence and Articles 
of Confederation. Gov¬ 
ernor. President of Con¬ 
gress. 

Pierce Mill rd. fr. Rock- 

Gales. 

Mayor of Washington. 

ville tpk. to Rock Creek. 

Pierce-st. alley nw. fr. 203 
L to 140 Pierce. 

Clay. 

Commissioner to Ghent. 
Speaker 1811-25. Secre¬ 
tary of State. 

Polk st. Anacostia fr. Jef- 

Prescott. 

Colonel at Bunker Hill. 

ferson. 

Quincy st. ne. bet. 1st and 
2d and Q and R. 

Winthrop. 

Speaker, 1847. 

Taylor alley sw. fr. 478 G 

Tompkins. 

Vice-President twice. 

to 481 H. 

Taylor st. Anacostia fr. 

Taney. 

Chief Justice. 

Harrison. 

Washington court nw. fr. 

Hull. 

Commodore. 

480 Washington. 

Washington st. Anacostia 
fr. Monroe. 

Woodbury. 

Justice United States Su¬ 
preme Court, Secretary 
of Treasury. 

Washington st. nw. fr. 722 

Sumpter. 

Brigadier General in Revo- 


4th to 715 5th. lution. Senator. Minis¬ 

ter to Brazil. 

I will add that as the names of less important officials or 
personages have been used in the lists only where there 
appeared no name of a President or Vice-President appro¬ 
priate to a particular letter, it should result that when a 
President shall hereafter be chosen whose name will begin 


OF WASHINGTON CITY 


21 


with such particular letter, it might be substituted for that 
which had been temporarily used. 

It appears unfortunate that the name of Washington 
should be applied to so insignificant a street as the present 
North W street, which is now one of the shortest in the 
series, cutting through a kind of “panhandle” in the ex- 
tremest northern point of the city. 

There was indeed no necessity to use the name of the 
Father of his Country at all, in this rearrangement of names, 
for his fame is secure enough without such reminder. To no 
one could Sir Christopher’s great epitaph be more justly ap¬ 
plied than to the man of men in whose honor the people 
have reared here the loftiest shaft of stone that ever pierced 
the clouds, and whose name comprehends the entire city. 

But a practicable and not difficult change would convert 
W street into one of the most important avenues of the city. 
It will be seen from the plat that the old Boundary street, 
now called Florida aveniie, meets W street North first at the 
western extremity of that street; after which it makes a loop 
to the north and east, in the course of which it again strikes 
W street at the eastern end. If Florida avenue, widened to 
the breadth of our widest thoroughfares, were called Wash¬ 
ington avenue, and made to run straight through W street 
and thence pursue its route eastwardly with the course of 
that avenue to the Eastern Branch, the city would be encir¬ 
cled on the north by a grand girdle properly adorned by the 
name of him who guarded the whole country while he 
lived. 

□ The name would be peculiarly appropriate, as there is 
within the limits of the city no thoroughfare which was so 
frequently traversed by General Washington as this. 

The northern boundary of the city, as described by Free- 


22 


STREET NOMENCLATURE 


man the surveyor in his report of July 4, 1795, began at 
a point in this road on the eastern bank of a ford in Rock 
Creek, at what was formerly known as the old Paper Mill 
bridge where P Street bridge now stands. This was origi¬ 
nally the road from Georgetown to Bladensburg. It formed 
part of an important communication between the southern 
and the northern colonies, crossing the Potomac at George¬ 
town, and passing through Vansville, a small village in 
Prince George’s county, Maryland, where it is said Wash¬ 
ington frequently spent the night; and was the post-road 
referred to in the letter of the Commissioners, which I have 
read. Running northeastwardly from its initial point, Boun¬ 
dary street skirted the base of the hills that run in a curve 
facing to the south around the plateau on which the prin¬ 
cipal part of the city is built. 

I do not affirm that Washington always made use of this 
road in his journeys to the North. Strange to say, his jour¬ 
nal very seldom states where he crossed the river. But the 
Georgetown Ferry was so much more convenient and safe 
than those across the much wider river near Mount Vernon, 
that the probabilities are in favor of its frequent selection. 
Weld, in his travels, speaking of Hoe’s Ferry below Mount 
Vernon, describes the Potomac there as three miles wide, and 
says that boats crossing were often exposed to great risks 
from high winds; and he complains of the general insecurity 
of Virginia ferries and of the constant accidents to persons 
and horses in crossing them. 

Twining came in 1796 by this road from Bladensburg to 
Georgetown. Washington’s Journal under date of Septem¬ 
ber 22d, 1787, shows he travelled over it on that day; for he 
states he breakfasted that day at Bladensburg, passed through 
Georgetown, dined at Alexandria and reached home by sun- 


OF WA SHIN G TON CITY 


23 


set, after an absence of more than four months. When Mrs. 
Washington followed her husband to New York, where he 
had gone to assume the Presidency, she took the route from 
Mount Vernon to Alexandria and Georgetown, and thence 
followed this road to Bladensburg. Washington doubtless 
continued to use it at times, as long as business required 
him to travel to the North, and certainly whenever he came 
to visit the Federal City, on which occasions he frequently 
lodged in Georgetown. 

Some of these notable journeys were made to Annapolis 
long before the commencement of the Revolution. His visit 
to Boston to confer with Governor Shirley was in 1756, the 
year after Braddock’s defeat, when he was but twenty-four 
years old. Perhaps the most interesting of these expedi¬ 
tions was that made on horseback in 1773, in company 
with Patrick Henry and Edmund Pendleton, all delegates 
from Virginia, on their way to attend the Second Continen¬ 
tal Congress about to assemble at Philadelphia. 

It was at the session of the Virginia Convention that 
elected these delegates that Washington had declared his 
readiness to raise one thousand men, sustain them at his own 
expense and march at their head to the relief of Boston. 
Five years before, he had told Arthur Lee at Mount Vernon, 
he was prepared whenever his country called him to take 
his musket on his shoulder in its defense. 

To one who passes over this same ground to-day, it is 
truly interesting to recall that our Washington, more than a 
century ago, rode with his friends and servants along this 
country road under the shade of the fine oaks the survivors 
of which are still standing. Through the openings of the 
stately forest his observing eye rested on the waters of 
his beloved Potomac, that had flowed down more than 


24 


STREET NOMENCLATURE 


two hundred miles from its mountain “ mother house,” to 
encircle with its affectionate embrace the future Capital of 
the Nation, and to glide thence along the shores of Mount 
Vernon where now his remains repose in the peace that was 
won by his sword. 

Two of his biographers have indulged in interesting 
speculation as to the talk of these three travellers as they 
wended their way towards the scene of that grand parlia¬ 
ment of which they were already the destined leaders; whose 
bold and sagacious action was to establish forever in the 
firmament of the nations a splendid and benignant constel¬ 
lation, shining with a steady effulgence that would forever 
cheer the friendless peoples, and “ what is dark illumine,” 
throughout the world. 

Washington’s familiarity with the topography of the 
District, in great part acquired during these journeys, en¬ 
abled him to form a sound judgment as to the fitness of 
the location for the site of a great city. It would be pre¬ 
eminently appropriate that this, our via sacra , should bear 
the name of the most illustrious man who had ever passed 
over its surface. 

The incomparable fabric of the builders of the nation 
should not be allowed to deteriorate in the hands of their 
descendants and successors. This Capital, that the valor 
and virtues of such men rendered possible, is entrusted in 
great part to the care of those whose good fortune it is to 
have their homes here. 

The members of Congress, with occasional exceptions, nat¬ 
urally, cannot possess that personal knowledge of the needs 
of the District that will always enable them to determine 
for themselves as to the propriety of the various suggestions 
for its benefit that are constantly laid before them. They 
favor, I am sure, whatever measures they believe to be for 


OF WASHINGTON CITY 


25 


the real interests of the District, in whose advancement and 
embellishment they must have a just pride. What they 
reasonably may fear is the danger of being deceived by 
cunning and unscrupulous lobbyists into the adoption of 
selfish schemes of speculation. 

It is the duty of our people to see that proper information 
is furnished to the legislators when necessary to thwart such 
projects. Within a few years Congress has established the 
Rock Creek Park, and at the session just closed it conferred 
upon the District an inestimable boon by enacting that the 
great reclamation from the bed of our noble river shall, 
by the name of the Potomac Park, be forever held and used 
by the Government as a national possession for the recrea¬ 
tion and pleasure of the people. I am glad to bear public 
witness to the importance of the zealous labors of many of 
our citizens, and especially of Mr. Charles C. Glover, in the 
advocacy of these beneficent measures before a Congress 
that only required a candid and intelligent explanation to 
commend them to its favor. 

I can not better close this subject than by quoting a 
passage from the opinion of the Supreme Court, delivered 
by Mr. Justice Story, (whose name we propose to affix to one 
of our streets,) in the case of Van Ness vs. The City of Wash¬ 
ington, 4 Peters, 231. The court, speaking of the original 
proprietors of the lands comprehended within the District, 
uses this language: 

“They might, and indeed must, also have placed a just 
confidence in the Government, that in founding the city it 
w T ould do no act that would obstruct its prosperity or inter¬ 
fere with its great fundamental objects or interests. It 
could never be supposed that Congress would seek to destroy 
what its own legislation had created and fostered into being. 

“On the other hand it must have been obvious that as 
Congress must forever have an interest to protect and aid 


26 


STREET NOMENCLATURE 


the city, it would for this very purpose be most impolitic and 
inconvenient to lay any obstruction to the most free exercise 
of its power over it. The city was designed to last in per¬ 
petuity, capitoli immobile saxum” 

In bringing to a close these remarks, far too protracted, 
I ask from my auditors their support of the plan I have 
ventured to suggest, whenever its advocacy may appear to 
be needed. 


At the conclusion of this address and of the discussion of 
the subject by members and others, the following resolution 
was adopted: 

Resolved, on motion of Mr. Weller, “ That a committee 
be appointed by the chair to prepare a memorial to Con¬ 
gress in connection with the paper of the evening, for the 
purpose of securing a change from the present scheme of 
naming the streets for letters to a system of alphabetical 
names commemorating Presidents, Vice-Presidents and other 
eminent citizens.” 

Seconded by Mr. Spofford and carried. 

Under the resolution, the following committee was 
appointed by the President: Messrs. John A. Kasson, 
Alexander B. Hagner, Michael I. Weller, Marcus 
Baker, Lewis J. Davis, Martin F. Morris, J. Ormond 
Wilson. 


The foregoing remarks are published at the request of a 
number of citizens who desired an opportunity to examine 
the plan at leisure. In the interest of brevity, there has 




OF WASHINGTON CITY 


27 


been no attempt to reproduce the extemporaneous remarks 
made at the time, which were chiefly of a biographical or 
historical character. 

A few changes have been made in the original list of 
names by the substitution of some that seem to conform 
more fully to the general scheme suggested in the Address 
than those first given. 


The plan of Mr. Justice Brown having been mentioned, 
it was considered proper to submit the Address to him 
before publication. His letter, which is an interesting 
contribution to the discussion, is, with his approbation, 
appended: 

“Supreme Court of the United States. 

“Washington, D. C., 

“June 19, 1897 . 

“My Dear Judge: I have just finished reading your 
very interesting address upon the nomenclature of our 
streets, and hope that this will be the beginning of a move¬ 
ment which will eventuate in some change being made. 

“While I am, perhaps, too partial to the scheme I sug¬ 
gested of naming the streets after the capitals of the States, 
there are certain practical objections to it which might 
interfere with any change being made at all, of which I 
think there is great need. I would be very glad to see the 
plan you suggest adopted, of naming them after the lead¬ 
ing men of the country. Perhaps the committee that was 
appointed might co-operate with Mr. Dalzell, who has 
charge of a similar measure before the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives. I return the proof-sheets by my messenger. 

Very truly yours, 

H. B. BROWN. 

Mr. Justice Hagner. 

















































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